A landmark report, released by the United Nations on May 6, 2019, has warned that the global decline in Nature is occurring at unprecedented rates in human history and the rates at which species are becoming extinct are also accelerating, thereby gravely impacting the people and the world. This Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services was compiled by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and is the most comprehensive one ever done.
In assessing the changes that have taken place in the last five decades and providing a comprehensive picture of the relationship between the economic development pathways and their impacts on nature, the report draws on local and indigenous knowledge and also provides a range of possible scenarios for the coming decades. The verdict is the same as that of other such reports: the current global response is insufficient and transformative changes are critically required to restore and protect nature. The opposition of vested interests must be overcome for public good.
According to the report, around one million animal and plant species are under threat of extinction, possibly within decades. More than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reef-forming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened. The picture is less clear for insect species, but available evidence supports a tentative estimate of 10% being threatened.
In order to boost the policy-relevance of the Report, five direct drivers of change in nature, with the largest relative global impacts so far, have been ranked, in descending order.
- Changes in land and sea use
- Direct exploitation of organisms
- Climate change
- Pollution
- Invasive alien species
Within this context, the report examines six policy scenarios i.e. different “baskets” of clustered policy options and approaches. These include “Regional Competition,” “Business as Usual” and “Global Sustainability” to project likely impacts on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people of these pathways by 2050.
The achievement of international societal and environment goals, under the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development cannot be achieved based on current trajectories, due to the past and ongoing rapid declines in biodiversity and ecosystem functions. These negative trends are bound to continue beyond 2050, given the lack of transformative change and projected impacts of increasing trends amongst the five drivers listed above.
However, a glimmer hope, vis-à-vis transformative change exists. There are a multitude of policy actions and societal initiatives in place at various levels, which are raising awareness about the severe impacts of existing consumption patterns, the need to protect local environments, promotion of sustainable local economies and restoration of degraded areas. These have contributed towards the expansion and strengthening of the current network of ecologically representative and well-connected protected area networks and other effective area-based conservation measures, the protection of watersheds and incentives and sanctions to reduce pollution.
According to Sir Robert Watson, the Chair ofIPBES, “it is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global. “Through ‘transformative change’, nature can still be conserved, restored and used sustainably – this is also key to meeting most other global goals. By transformative change, we mean a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values.”
India Outbound
May 7, 2019
source https://indiaoutbound.org/an-overview-of-the-ipbes-global-assessment-report-on-biodiversity-and-ecosystem-services/
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